Spin coating processes and associated spin coating machines, generally called spin coaters, are typically used to provide a uniform coating on a substrate. Spin coating processes have been used to form coated substrates, such as lenses, including optical lenses.
Existing spin coaters are typically used in a production line for the application of a single type or class of coating material, and are often followed in the production line by a pre-set curing station, such as a thermal curing oven, or a UV curing station, or an IR curing station. The type of and settings associated with the curing station depends upon the type of coating material that is applied in the spin coating station. This results in difficulty with regard to quickly switching the production line for the application of different coating materials, such as for different substrates and/or different final products, as generally the coating material reservoir and the dispensing nozzle assembly must be purged and cleaned to accommodate the change in coating material. An additional difficulty relates to the curing station, which may not be suitable for curing other coating compositions.
It would be desirable to develop new spin coating assemblies that can accommodate different coating compositions. It would be further desirable that such newly developed spin coating assemblies be able to accommodate a plurality of different coating compositions.